The Android O logo.
Google has made the next version of Android official and it’s simply called Android O for now. A preview version is available for developers to download and test.
Android O promises better performance than previous versions by imposing new limits to what apps can do in the background. This will not just make Android faster, it will also prolong battery life.
Notifications are grouped into channels for better management. For example, you can block notifications from social media apps but allow notifications from messages.
It has out of the box support for Picture-in-Picture mode where a video can play on top of other apps. Apps can even be displayed on a remote display – that’s multi-display support.
Android O won’t have a new design language.
There’s also a new Autofill API, better icon support, Wi-Fi Alert support, enhanced support for keyboard arrows, WebView enhancements and more.
If you are an Android developer, the Android O preview can be downloaded from the Android Developers official website. This release contains several bugs. It’s only for testing purposes and should not be used in your main device.
Supported devices include the Nexus 5X, Nexus 6P, Nexus Player, Pixel C, Pixel and Pixel XL.
Google will release the second developers preview in May, third developers preview in June and the fourth developers preview in July. The final version of Android O will be released to the public in the third quarter of 2017.
More details about Android O will be discussed in the upcoming Google I/O event scheduled on May 17-19, 2017 in Mountain View, California.
